Data Sheet 7_Time-of-day effects of acute and regular exercise on sleep quality and mood: a three-level meta-analysis.csv

This study examined the effects of acute and regular exercise performed at different times of day on sleep and mood.</p>Methods<p>Eight English and Chinese databases were searched from inception to June 2026. Parallel and crossover randomized trials were synthesized using three-level meta-analysis with non-diagonal sampling variance-covariance matrices.

Exercise vs. Control and direct Time vs. Time comparisons were analyzed separately, with CR2 cluster-robust inference used as a robustness check.</p>Results<p>Thirteen studies contributed 81 effect sizes (40 sleep and 41 mood). For sleep, Exercise vs. Control showed a large effect in the conventional model (g = 0.86, 95% CI [0.26, 1.46], p = 0.005), but CR2 inference was non-significant (p = 0.109). Direct Time vs. Time comparisons were non-significant (g = 0.15, 95% CI [−0.08, 0.39], p = 0.209; CR2 p = 0.127), with no stable advantage for morning, afternoon, or evening exercise.